The German leader is campaigning for the European integration of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will visit Western Balkans before a European Council meeting takes place next month, carrying the message that the region belongs to the European Union.
The six Western Balkan countries with EU membership aspirations – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North MacedoniaSerbia and Serbia are engaged in a years-long reform process, Scholz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday.
“Honoring our commitments to them is not just a question of credibility. Today more than ever, their integration is also in our strategic interest,” he said, highlighting the influence of “external powers” in the region, including Russia.
Scholz called in April to accelerate Western Balkan countries’ efforts to join the EU in a “new era” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In October last year, at a summit in Slovenia, EU leaders merely reiterated their “commitment to the enlargement process” in a statement that disappointed the six candidates for the enlargement. accession to the EU who were hoping for a concrete timetable.
The German chancellor said Thursday that he would attend the European summit at the end of May “with the clear message that the Western Balkans belong to the European Union.”
Ukraine
Earlier on Thursday, Scholz said there could be “no shortcuts” to Ukraine’s EU membership, adding that an exception for kyiv would be unfair to Western Balkan countries also applying for membership. membership.
“The membership process is not a matter of a few months or years,” he said. He nevertheless said the bloc must find a “quick and pragmatic” way to help kyiv.
Ukraine has requested that its EU candidate status be fast forward after the Russian invasion which devastated the country.
Frenchman Emmanuel Macron also said it would take “decades” for Ukraine to join the EU.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “unjust.”
